The kick-off meeting of the “Volunteers in Play – Employment Routes” (VIPER) project was held on 12-14 November 2013 in Cheltenham, UK. The project, involving a Consortium of 6 organizations from the EU and 1 from Turkey, is co-funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation (TOI) sector and will aim at transferring a play training course for volunteers across the EU.
As many services and organizations working with children and young people rely ever more on volunteers, the need for a well-trained children’s workforce is particularly perceived in the EU. The course “Volunteers in Play” was specifically designed by the University of Gloucestershire (UK) to tackle this issue by improving the quality of VET for adults working with children, while at the same time serving as a stepping stone into employment for volunteers seeking training opportunities in this field. The training course entails front lessons to be delivered to anyone wishing to volunteer or work in the children’s workforce. Some of its features include notions on play spaces, the role of playworkers and the importance of play for children.
During its 24 months’ duration, the VIPER project will transfer the “Volunteers in Play” course to all participating countries and create an EU-wide training resource. After an initial volunteer training needs assessment, the original training course materials for trainers and learners will be adapted according to each participating country’s practices. The materials will then be piloted through a “train the trainer” activity in all participating countries and adjusted. These will also be made available online and downloadable in all participating countries’ languages. The final phase of the project will entail the dissemination of the training materials as well as activities aimed at seeking accreditation for the course at national but also EU level.
CESIE will actively support the project’s research and pilot phases thanks to its contacts and partnerships with local organizations dedicated to children care and play. Moreover, CESIE will lead the product adaptation section entailing the collation of country specific material and the adjustment of the original training course.
The project is co-financed with support of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme. For further information on the project, please write to partnership@cesie.org.
Partners:
- University of Gloucestershire (United Kingdom) – Project Coordinator
- Dumlupinar University (Turkey)
- CESIE (Italy)
- Hafelekar (Austria)
- Tokium (Portugal)
- Univerzita Palackeho v Olomouci (Czech Republic)
- Rogers Foundation for person Centred learning (Hungary)
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
